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Thomas Borchert is a Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont. He has conducted research on Buddhism and politics, monasticism, discipline and Buddhist education in China, Thailand and Singapore. He is the author of Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest Border (University of Hawai’i Press 2017) and the editor of Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts (Routledge 2018).

While the government of the People’s Republic of China is widely understood as being antagonistic to religion, Buddhism has long been used by the Communist Party of China in its efforts to foster ties with other parts of Asia. The tooth relic has gone on tour to Southeast Asia, and the royal family of Thailand has donated Buddhist temples within China as part of the efforts to expand ties around Buddhist Asia. Even during Maoist peaks, Buddhist diplomacy was part of the CCP’s toolkit. So it is no surprise that in the fourth decade of the Reform Era, Buddhism remains present in the efforts to foster ties with the countries of Asia, such as in the massive “belt and road” infrastructure project. For Chinese Buddhist minorities, this Buddhist diplomacy represents opportunities for development, though these opportunities are not without costs. In this paper, I analyze an international conference that took place on China’s Southwest border in 2016. This conference, the “First Theravada Buddhist Forum,” in Xishuangbanna (Sipsongpanna) was attended by Buddhist lay and monastics from around China and other parts of Asia. It represented perhaps the culmination of thirty-five years of post-Mao rebuilding, as well as a highpoint of ties between the CCP and religious actors. At the same time, however, it makes clear that the shared interests of the CCP and religious actors take place in an asymmetric field of play, which can have a long-term impact on the religious practice.